Xander's Luck
by c-wolf
Summary: Cross between Buffy and Spider Robinson's Callahan series.


(Don't know yet where I'm going with this, however, I can definitely say that I do not own Buffy's characters, or Spider Robinson's characters. "The Place" is in Callahan's Key, and Callahan's Con By Spider Robinson. I have yet to put any original characters in my stories, so all these belong to those just mentioned)

They'd saved the world, losing people in the process. Now it was time to rest and build a new Watcher's council to train the rest of the slayers.  
  
Xander walked out with his bags.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"I've had it!" He yelled. "I need some time alone. Dawn has my cell number. I'll be back someday." Then he got in the used car he'd bought, and left.  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
Somehow, Xander's wanderings brought him to Key West. As he was driving around, he stumbled across some weird business called "The Place". Walking in, he noticed it was an open-air bar with some weird characters doing various things. Behind the bar was a man who looked like a cross between a hippy and Garth Brooks. Xander walked over.  
  
- - - - - - - -  
  
Jake Stonebender was wiping the bar as he smiled at the antics and puns of Long Drink McGonnigle and Doc Webster.  
  
"A woman had twins and gave them up for adoption. One of them went to family in Egypt and was named "Ahmal." The other went to a family in Spain, and they named him "Juan." Years later, Juan sent a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she told her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responded, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."  
  
Peanuts and pieces of paper pelted them both, they responded in kind. A free-for-all took place as a one-eyed man walked in.  
  
Jake noticed him. He appeared to have a lot on his shoulders. Grief and pain etched his eye, and lined his face. Then Jake looked closer. It was the same type of look many war veterans had. He hoped the guy would open up.  
  
- - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Xander vaguely paid attention to the puns and everything that were taking place. All he wanted was a drink. He didn't even have enough attention to hear the 13 year old nearby, talking about space time and some hard to understand words. It would have confused him to say the least if he did. Some of the words were just barely around long enough to be used by top scientists.  
  
"What do you have?" Xander asked, as he sat down at the bar.  
  
"How about an Irish Blessing?" asked the bartender, who turned around to get a mug. Then he put it into a weird looking machine, and started pressing buttons. As he was doing that, a dog walked up.  
  
"Hey Jake, can I have one too?"  
  
"Sure Ralph."  
  
Xander gawked for a second, then shrugged. He'd seen worse things than a talking dog. The bartender, or Jake, placed the mug in front him. He took a sip. After the taste hit him, he drank half of the rest, then sighed in satisfaction.  
  
"Need anything else?"  
  
"Not right now, thanks."  
  
"Ok." Then Jake walked away. Xander stared at his back for a second, then turned toward the mug. After a few sips, he noticed the dog was still around. So he turned and asked with a humorous twinkle and asked "So, what goes on around here anyway?"  
  
"A talking dog doesn't unnerve you?"  
  
Xander sighed. "A talking dog is more human than the things I've seen. Compared to them, you'd be the last person on Earth to unnerve me." Then he sipped the last of his drink. Looking around, he noticed a few people chucking their empties into the fireplace. So he took aim, and missed it and the cussing parrot named Harry, by ten feet.  
  
"Foul ball! Foul Ball! You..." the parrot would've said more, but a cat materialized out of nowhere and tried to take him down. It chased the manic parrot around the bar a couple times, reappearing here and there to give it a scare. Then they paused for a breather, and the cat started washing itself. The parrot went to his little commode and did his business, then flushed. Xander laughed at it all.


End file.
